Sunday, March 20, 2011

Safety-Conscious Asians

Walking around ASU campus, your eyes and ears are inundated with a myriad of sounds and images. You gaze upon girls dressing in not nearly enough clothes, policemen speeding along on their trusty Segways, people who are far too large to ride a Razor scooter that was designed with a six year old girl in mind, people who decided to learn to ride a skateboard (poorly) amidst a throng of rushing students, street preachers telling the students that they're all going to hell, smokers, environmental campaigners, people exercising in a far too public environment, etc. And of course, Asians.

This is not meant to be a racist post. More of a simple commentary on my observation of the amazing phenomenon of Asian people protecting their bodies. Most of the Caucasian females you see on campus are walking advertisements for melanoma. They have far surpassed the desired brown and now radiate a carrot like color. Asians on the other hand, not only do not care about their skin color, but they actually appear to be frightened of the sun. Dressed in cardigans, hats, and sunglasses to protect their exposed skin from the ultraviolet rays, armed with umbrellas for added protection from the glint of vitamin D that might have otherwise passed through their barrier, they carefully walk from class to class. They do not text, or even use their phones very often as they walk. Not only will they never ride a bike without an approved safety helmet, but they will use the same precaution if they are using one of the aforementioned scooters. If their backpack comes with a waist buckle, rest assured it will be buckled.

No, there really was no point to all of this rambling, except that I should maybe look to learn a bit from this cautionary culture. My body might thank me for it one day.